prune picker

This is the blog of a prune picker. (Native born Californian) Retired oilfield. I am an old man. (91) I blog a lot about my body and getting old. As I approach death life gets more interesting. More interesting is not good. I still drive. I attend sports, music, and civic events. I am writing my memoirs. I attend swim class three times a week. Some of my blogs might be interesting. A lot of my blogs are silly and trivial. None are very long.

Friday, September 2, 2016

PrunePicker Memories of my Sister, Juanita Aletha Moore.

This, of course, is one of my favorite pictures. My five sisters.

I look at the picture and think about my Mom getting all five of these girls all dressed up. They are all so pretty! The twins were born late in 1913. Picture taken in 1914. Nita (Juanita) eight years old is seated with the twins on the right. Don't you know that Nita was busy helping Mom. There were five girls under seven at one time. A picture of the five girls later in life is below. Can you match the ladies to the little girls?

Nita is the lady on the left. They are nice looking ladies. They were so nice and kind. I am thankful that I was blessed with such a wonderful bunch of sisters!

Nita had an interesting life. You have heard the old Chinese blessing? "May you not have an interesting life!" An interesting life was assumed to be full of hard times. Four of my sisters were married twice. (except Nita) I always thought that Nita should have also been married twice.

Nita was still living at home when I was born. Six months later she was married to Bob Moore. I can remember her coming in the front door when I was four years old. There was joy and excitement in the house caused by her visit.

Nita had seven children. The first was born when I was one year old. I had all ready been made an Uncle by sister Thelma. I was an Uncle when I was 21 days old.

I lived with Nita and her family for several short periods. I was around her children a lot. We were well acquainted and were like brothers. After a while we went different ways.

Nita had a hard life. For a time she and Bob were crop workers and followed the harvest from Arizona to California. Bob earned money as a labor broker. I am not sure how it worked. But Bob made money at it and did not pick crops. They had a truck and tent. I remember visiting Nita and her family in Arvin. They were in a tent. One time she was chopping firewood and a splinter stuck in her eye. Her glass eye was so good, that you could not tell which eye it was.

I was living with them in a house in Pomona. My sister Jean who worked at the Pomona Tile Plant got Nita a job washing towels and industrial cloths for the plant. She did the laundry in her Maytag washing machine and clotheslines. One evening I looked out the window and the back of the house was burning! We got out but the little house burned to the ground. I remember that her washing machine had melted. To another sister's house for me that night.

Nita smiled and laughed a lot. I was talking with her about dancing once and she said that she could do the Charleston. She did it! I was amazed. She was really good. You could tell that she had really danced in her younger days!

I can remember Nita making a meal of salt pork (salt pork was 4 1/2 cents per pound) gravy and biscuits. Or potato soup. (only potatoes and tomatoes) I remember going for her to buy day old bread.

When Bob passed away. I rode with my sister Jean and her husband Butch to the funeral in Bythe, California. It was like a reunion with all her children. Nita had been living in a house in Blythe for some time. The house was owned by a son. She finally could take it easy.

Once when Jackie and I had our RV parked in Palm Springs we drove down to Blythe and went to lunch at Denny's. Some of Nita's family joined us. Here is a picture taken at that time. The oldest and the youngest of the Monson siblings.

Nita worked hard all her life. At seven she had four younger sisters. I understand that she washed the dishes from that time. She worked hard helping my Mom and then worked hard raising her own children.

I thought that Nita had a hard and dreary life. She chopped wood, she took in laundry, she picked crops, she lived sometimes in a tent. With seven children. But she was always jolly and good natured.

I remember Nita fondly. She was always kind, gracious, and thoughtful. She passed away in 1993 at the age of 86. God Bless her.

Your stories have such a ringing of similar memories of my mother's family, she was born in 1921, the only girl with 5 older brothers ..the youngest was probably 14 when she was born.. my mother passed away at 90, in 2011..During the early 40's, while my father was stationed with the Coast Gustd..my mother, brother and I lived with her family in Kinsett, Iowa..my mother's brothers and their families all lived within 10 minutes to an hour of us..there were within 7 years, 19 grandchildren..we all stayed close, mostly, through the years. It was a very different time..memories not forgotten..Thank you for sharing..

My niche in the Blogosphere.

My blog is about me, my family, my interests, my opinions, and my daily activities. My name is Chuck Monson. I am a native born Californian. I worked in the oil exploration and production business and am now retired and living in Ruston, Louisiana. I am a 91 year old widower. I blog because I really enjoy it. Posting gives me a schedule and is a wonderful make work project. I like pictures, both the taking and looking at them. I really like old historic pictures. I enjoy a good photograph. I like putting pictures and text together in a way that is hopefully interesting to others and that will be interesting to me in the future. I like to be silly now and then. It is also putting my memories down on paper. My blog serves as a diary. I have used it for a reference quite a few times.

I do mix it up. Some of my blogs are “what I had for breakfast”, some are just pictures, some are items of genealogical nature, and there are items from my family history. I have a history of the Munson/Monsons in America. The study of this history has led me to the discovery of much American history that had previously been unknown by me.

I have had a lifelong interest in history, archeology, philosophy, religion, politics, architecture, technical subjects, music, food, and sports. I spend time every day reading blogs and posting to my blog. I do not pontificate on religion or politics because I do not consider myself wise enough to try to persuade others to my beliefs. My beliefs are quite nebulous anyway.

I was started on blogging by my late son, Christopher David Monson. Chris wrote the blog "snaggletoothie of the Loyal Opposition" There is a link to his blog above. I look at Chris's blog often. I have read most of his posts.

My adult years.

I married Jackie Lois Ireton in 1944 in San Luis Obispo, California. I met her on a blind date when I was taking amphibious training at Moro Bay. We have been blessed with four children, nine grand children, and nine great grandchildren. They are an exceptional group. I love them and I am proud of them.

I was an army combat engineer (infantry with shovels) during World War II. I served in the Pacific. I was wounded on Peleliu Island helping the marines on Bloody Nose Ridge. I was shot in both legs just above the knees. The wound locations indicate that I was not running away.

I received a BSME in 1950 from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. Jackie received a PHT. (pushing husband through.) I retired from oilfield work in 1985. Jackie and I moved into a fifth wheel trailer and enjoyed the RV lifestyle until Jackie's health failed. We traveled across the continent 3 1/2 times. We spent a summer as volunteers at Acadia National Park. For 17 years we helped build an Escapee RV park in Chimacum, Washington. Jackie passed away in 2007. We had been married 63 years. We were married on June 3, 1944. I still live in our fifth wheel trailer. It is parked in the yard of my daughter Kerry's home in Ruston, Louisiana. It is by far the nicest RV park that I have ever lived in.

1957 Family Photo.

My teen age years.

I was born in 1925 in Pomona, California. Pomona is on the east edge of Los Angeles County. It is halfway between Los Angeles and San Bernardino and halfway between the mountains and the beach. I thought that it was great to be an hour from snow covered mountains and an hour from the ocean surf.

In my days of growing up, Pomona was completely surrounded by orchards and truck farms. Oranges, lemons, grapefruit, peaches, apricots, olives, persimmons, and walnuts. Watermelons and strawberries. During the depression I had many meals from the orchards.

They say that you cannot go back home. That is true of the Pomona Valley of my youth. Because it is no longer there. Most of it is now covered with asphalt and stucco buildings.

Pomona Valley in 1925 from the South Hills. Old Baldy in the background.

My ancestors.

I am getting more and more into genealogy. I have a trove of information on the Munsons/Monsons. My father is buried in California. His father by adoption (He was an uncle.) is buried in Kansas. His natural father is buried in Kentucky. So I have two grandfathers. I have a grandfather and four great grandfathers buried in Kentucky, one great buried in New Jersey, and three greats buried in Connecticut. I have two greats buried in Rattlesden, Suffolk, England. I have been led to believe that my ancestors before that came from Denmark and Normandy.

Captain Thomas Munson was the first Munson to move to America. He was baptized in Rattlesden, England in 1612. The baptismal font is still in use. He served in the militia in the Pequot Indian Wars in 1637. He served in the militia all his life and reached the status of Captain. His signature is on the founding document for New Haven, Connecticut.

In 2011 I visited New Haven and took pictures of his gravestone. In May 2012 my oldest daughter Nancy Ann escorted me to England and France. We visited Rattlesden and I took some pictures of the Captain's baptismal font.

Why is the old prune picker living in Ruston, Louisiana?

In 2006 my wife Jackie was in poor health. Jackie had kidney failure and was on dialysis. She had heart problems for some time with A-fib. She had fallen and broken her hip. She had broken ribs and vertebra just moving around normally. My family thought that I needed help caring for Jackie. My daughter Kerry and her husband John offered to park our trailer in their backyard in Ruston and help. Jackie and I accepted their kind offer. My daughter Nancy accompanied Jackie in an airplane flight from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to Ruston. My son Mike took time off to help me pull our trailer for five long days to our new home. We were and are grateful. We enjoyed our new home very much.

Unfortunately and sadly, Jackie passed away in six months. I had sold our truck and was permanently parked. I was ready to give up full time RVing anyway. It is very pleasant in Ruston and I am close to family. So that is why I have been living in Ruston, Louisiana since October 2006.